Aaron Gann

thanks for the advice you're probably right. I've made a few knives but never got seriously into bladesmithing until last year. it is more of a hobby than anything though I wouldn't mind one day trying to sell a few. I've never actually burned the steel while making a blade I try to keep it at orange, so rather than just ignore it and keep going I want to try to make the best that I can. for clarification it's more of a long dirk than a sword. once again thank you so much for the advice

well hello again here again with another question. when I was forging the other day I left it in too long and started burning it, early stage no real melting let it cool down no hammering. it is a spring clip from a railroad. so my question is. did I ruin my sword by that or can it still be saved?

hello there I live in east tennessee where red clay is abundant and I was just curious if it would work well for a heat treatment on a japanese style blade

maybe I've got it wrong but isn't your anvil a little bit low?

the only thing I can say is wow. it's beautiful. just.....wow

alright well these are cell phone pics but it's all i got for right now hope ya enjoy

speaking in a general sense western european short sword. right now it is a little more than 19 inches. alas I ran out of coal and my fire died so i'll be doing some more next week

hello again. I'm forging a blade out of a spring railroad clip, not sure if this is a dagger or short sword yet so I was just curious how long does something have to be for it to be considered a sword?

Maybe I'm wrong or it's the camera angle, but is the handle just slightly off center of the blade? great work still but it's buggin me lol

well it's high carbon, I heated one up and after straightening I quenched it in straight water. hit it on the anvil and it shattered like glass. so looks like I found some decent knife material

I found an old tiller in the back of our garage and have been taking off the blades they are all stamped 365 EL, does anybody know what that means??? thanks a bunch for any assistance

thank you very much i read somewhere to use water but to me that seems....hazardous to my knifes health. then again I am not the expert here. so now does anybody know about the hamon line?

hello I am making my second knife out of a railroad clip. i was reading on here somewhere that they are most likely 1060 carbon steel. I want to differential harden it regardless but does anybody know if it will show a hamon line? and what would you recommend quenching it in?

I have had a lot of problems with these as well. best thing is just to use a hot cut hardy or an improvised chisel

hahaha someone else who uses ground forges!!!!
mine is made much the same way

I go to school at the tennessee center for technology morristown the auto mechanics class just got finished rebuilding a transmission and gave me the old cogs does anyobdy know what kind of steel this is

I go to school at the tennessee center for technology morristown the auto mechanics class just got finished rebuilding a transmission and gave me the old cogs does anyobdy know what kind of steel this is

the first weld i ever completed was like this
get some small rods i'm not sure what mine were maybe 1/4"
get 4 equal length and stack them so two on top two on bottom.
wire them together
stick one end in the fire and raise till cherry red
take it out and apply a generous amount (i doused mine though lol) with borax soap powder.
put back in the fire and slowly raise the temperature periodically turn the metal to ensure even heating
once you get it to welding heat it should be yellow (if its low carbon) possibly a few sparks and the surface should look like melted butter
put on the anvil and tap firmly rotating the bundle two hits on each side you should be able to hear a "Chink" as it "fuses"
do the other side the same way and you have the start of a nice basket weave handle, or you can just weld the whole thing and have a bigger piece of stock.
this type is called a faggot weld

lol frosty my next attempt is next week once i get my forge up and running again, i have not given up but my point is i severely underestimated that amount of time and work i would have to put into it. it is not like i imagined it to be lol

hello to everyone that is thinking about trying to smith a sword. just giving you a heads up I have been a hobbyist for about 5-6 years now and got into bladesmithing about 2 years ago. I've been making quite a few knives and decided i wanted to try forging a short sword and let me tell ya, you got some serious work ahead of you trying to forge it all to shape keeping it even length width and thickness. good luck with that. in fact the first two i have tried have utterly failed.
so in case you think your all bad and can make a sword on your first go around then go ahead but don't say i didn't warn you

ADMIN addition: in simple terms, read these pinned posts on sword smithing, and Follow their advise.  If you dont , and you are a cry baby becaue your "I wanna make a sword now" post  doesnt go your way, it is your own fault for not reading, this is a formal warning, people that insult or attack the real sword makers for giving solid advise after ignoring these warning may be banned as a result,  Trolls will not be tolerated.

well unfortunate news.....as i was forging last night i noticed a crack on the edge of the blade the extended almost to the middle decided to give it a good smack and it broke completely in half. guess thats what i get for using junk metal. not entirely sure what cause the crack could have been me straightening it when it wasn't hot enough or simply had a crack to begin with.
but what can ya do. I may have lost a blade but i gained a lot of experiance from doing this

if you have some to send i would love some too.....pretty please :D

these arnt Pandrol clips these are shaped like a big curve then a really small curve at the end

okat got some pictures uploaded these are how it looked yesterday sry for bad quality stupid camera phone will take better pics later. got a little but more work done on it today

i have been collecting railroad metal for awhile now (yes got permission from company to pick up anything they leave behind on the side) and have collected quite a few of the weird squiggle clip things? from what i've read these are generally made from 1040-1060 series steel. I have almost finished a dagger/shortsword thing and seems to have a very good flex so far. but does anyone know from experience if it really makes a good blade? sorry if i sound stupid